"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5

Points to Ponder ...

"My children may bicker, and I may—almost certainly will—complain. But the bickering and the griping are chaff, and what’s left when the winds of time carry them away are the golden kernels I want to savor..."
--Melissa Wiley

November 02, 2007

Happy (Belated) Feast Day, One and All!

First, All Hallows Eve. We love trick or treating, dressing up, carving pumpkins and eating candy around here, so Halloween is a definite fixture in our family tradition. We talked quite a bit this year about how Halloween is really the "vigil" of All Saints Day, and provides us, as Christians, the opportunity to poke a little fun at the fear of death. Scary skeletons, creepy grave sites, ghosts and other Halloween symbols are merely cartoons reminding us, by contrast, of the very real joy and hope of the resurrection in Jesus, and eternal happiness with Him. (This also led to our "All Saints Day Theme"--"O Death, where is thy victory? O Grave, where is thy sting?" from ICor15:55).

Junie B., Taz and I spent Sunny-boy's naptime carving the pumpkin and creating cute ghostly Luminaria out of plastic milk jugs. (We used Yankee Candles and Tea Lights for all of the above, and I think our front porch had to be the best-smelling candy stop in town!) Then the kids had their baths and got ready for church--this, too, is part of our tradition, and I think does a great job of setting the right attitude toward Halloween. (Happily, a parish in the next town has a 4:00 vigil Mass, or we wouldn't be able to do this--our parish's vigil is at 7pm!)

A quick meal of frozen dinners followed by lighting of the pumpkin and ghosts, and dressing of the goblins (this year, an Asian Princess, a Firefighter (last-minute switch to his favorite dress-up gear) and an adorable Pumpkin), and we were off to gather treats. We keep this part pretty short, maybe a dozen houses or so; and then return home to look over the goods and sample the booty.

After the kids went to bed, The Chief and I set to work making simple "Happy Feast Day" cards for each of the children, featuring their patron saints. (I had to get creative with Step 2's first name, since, lovely though it is!, it has no Saint affiliated with it.) We glued pictures of the saints to construction paper cards, wrote the brief message inside, and set the cards on the kitchen table. We hung balloons from ribbons along the top of the sliding glass door, and The Chief agreed to surprise the children with hot chocolate and Egg Sandwiches hot off the grill from the convenience store across the street--the usual "Birthday Breakfast" request around here. I woke the children up as soon as everything was ready, with a cheery, "Happy All Saints Day!" and was gratified at the oohs and ahhs as they entered the kitchen!

The children and I had already planned the "party" activities we would have at night after Daddy got home from work, and we spent the day preparing them. I gave my best effort to a rendition of Our Lady of Guadalupe for Junie B. to watercolor--for a game of "Pin the Roses on Juan Diego's Tilma!" (While I love how it turned out, this is really the first time I ever really wished we had high-quality water colors, after all.) After the paint dried, the boys helped Junie B. put star stickers all over Our Lady's robe--to charming effect, I think! Here's the "Tilma" covered with roses (later on, they each took one turn putting on a rose blindfolded, then put the roses all over in a joyous free-for-all):

and then put together sets of mostly foil-covered cardboard pieces, for a "put on the Armor of God" race, too. (Instead of dressing up as Saints, we dressed to become Saints!)

(Fashion mavens will appreciate how the Belt of Truth coordinates with the Feet Shod with Readiness-to-Spread-the-Gospel Crocs.)

We also played "St. Cecelia's Musical Chairs" and "St. Anthony's Hide and Find the Toy Radio"--both games in which Sunny-boy could easily participate, too! Finally, we took all the Halloween candy and stuffed it into the Teapot Pinata from Junie B.'s party, and had a grand time getting the same candy all over again! (We had brainstormed many other ideas, too, but these simple ones are what made the final cut.) :)

The highlight of the tea party was teatime itself. Junie B. and Taz made cute little mini cupcakes for the event, but I had found a wonderful idea at Catholic Culture for "kicking them up a notch", making them Flaming Cupcakes!

We decided to make a little ceremony out of it. We dug out our Wedding Candle and the children's Baptismal candles, and while singing "The Light of Christ has come into the world," lit the Baptismal candles from the Wedding Candle, and lit up the marshmallow-and-sugar cube topped cupcakes. Oh, was that ever fun!

Welcome to My Blog!

We are a Catholic homeschooling family of 7, a blend of step children, bio children and adoptees, making our way to heaven the best way we know how! Here's a record of our journey, with thoughts on anything we care about--mostly homeschooling, faith and finding a way to make it all work for each of us. Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy your visit!